C++: How to check if a determined process is running

Question

EDIT2: For those who think this is a duplicate, no this isn't. This was made in different context, knowing if a proccess is running and i did not knew i needed to convert till here 'martin' gives me the answer :p

EDIT: Answer was found! https://stackoverflow.com/a/12637971/4908011

I'm using Windows 7 with Visual Studio 2013 Deluxe. I can't seem to find any way to make a compatible x32 console application finding a process.

I need to know if a process is running, e.g. RobloxPlayerBeta.exe.

I keep getting the error:

WCHAR* incompatible with const char*

At 'strcmp(procEntry.szExeFile, name)'

The code I use:

bool ProcessRunning(const char* name)
{
HANDLE SnapShot = CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(TH32CS_SNAPPROCESS, 0);

if (SnapShot == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
    return false;

PROCESSENTRY32 procEntry;
procEntry.dwSize = sizeof(PROCESSENTRY32);

if (!Process32First(SnapShot, &procEntry))
    return false;

do
{
    if (strcmp(procEntry.szExeFile, name) == 0)
        return true;
} while (Process32Next(SnapShot, &procEntry));

return false;
}

Show us some code, otherwise we cant help you. How do you enumerate the running processes? — Nidhoegger, May 31 '15 at 11:06
`TCHAR` is a wide character type but not `char`; `strcmp` requires the arguments to be of type `const char *` — Pixelchemist, May 31 '15 at 11:16
I'm a newbie to C++, could you please explain me how to do it? — realmaster42, May 31 '15 at 11:17
possible duplicate of [how to convert const WCHAR \* to const char \*](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12637779/how-to-convert-const-wchar-to-const-char) — martin, May 31 '15 at 11:37
@PixelChemist, TCHAR isn't always a wide character type. See The answer by Ferruccio. — George, May 31 '15 at 17:31

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered May 31 '15 at 11:37

TCHAR is a wide character type if your programs is compiled for Unicode, a narrow character type otherwise. When you create a new project with VS2013, it will be set for Unicode, so TCHAR is most likely a wide character type. The simplest solution is to change the project settings to compile for non-Unicode instead.

Right-click on the project in the solution explorer window and select "Properties".
Select "Configuration Properties" and then "General".
Change the "Character Set" entry from "Unicode" to "Not Set" or "Multi-Byte".

When you compile now, TCHAR will be set to a narrow character type and your code should compile.

That is a nice answer, when writing my typedef comment, I thought about that, too, but dismissed that again. This is probably the easiest solution. — martin, May 31 '15 at 11:43

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:26

2

Well, the compiler message is clear:

in the PROCESSENTRY32 struct, szExeFile is of type tchar[] while your input to the function is a const char*. You get the error because strcmp expects char * and not a wide character. You need to either

convert the char to a tchar string ( see, e.g., here)
provide the input as a tchar string
compare with an appropriate function (see, e.g., in here)

However, since you are using c++, why don't you use a std::wstring (and perform the conversion according to this question)

edited May 23 '17 at 10:26

Community

1
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answered May 31 '15 at 11:17

martin

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How do i convert it to tchar? EDIT: I'm a newbie to C++, and I am still learning, I'm in hope someone teaches me how to do those conversions and fix this... – realmaster42 May 31 '15 at 11:18
Uh oh, it talks about TCHAR and my problem is WCHAR. EDIT: Alright thanks then, i found out conversion and it worked. – realmaster42 May 31 '15 at 11:28
Well, since you compile with unicode, `TCHAR` is an typedef to `wchar_t`, @realmaster42 – martin May 31 '15 at 11:30

C++: How to check if a determined process is running

2 Answers2